Profound Disappointment at Monkey Loss

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 16, 2010

I picked up (well, downloaded) the new Special Edition of Monkey Island 2. On the X-Box, I’m afraid… I figured it should be a family thing. One of my daughters was getting into the first one.

The Special Edition of the sequel doesn’t seem quite as spectacular as the first, but it’s probably because the graphics for the original release were a bit better than in the first game. Funny how going from 16 colors to 256 colors can do that. Still, it’s way awesome, and Monkey Island 2 is otherwise pretty timeless and one of the best graphic adventure games of all time. I think it’s awesome that it can be made current again and offered to a new generation of gamers.

I also enjoy listening to the developer commentary throughout the game. Maybe it’s only because I’m a developer, but… it’s way cool.

But when we played the game, my wife was struck with profound disappointment. “Where are the monkeys? The dancing monkeys? The ones in the logo screen are cute, but they don’t count!”

It’s true. The intro credit sequence was gone. The music was there in the menu, and you could view the credits in a completely re-done, more sterile options screen. But the totally awesome cinematic opening titles were nowhere to be found. And for my wife, the game was all about those dancing monkeys in the opening credit. The game is diminished significantly because of the monkey loss.

So – anyone – if you know if they buried that intro sequence with the dancing monkeys in the Special Edition somewhere, please let me know. Because apparently, it’s just not Monkey Island 2 without the monkeys. It’s just… I don’t know, “Island 2” or something.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about… Here it is in all its 1991 awesomeness:

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Retro - Comments: 11 Comments to Read

Bad Sector said,

I haven’t played MI2, although i played MI1 for a while (but i never finished it, i’m not much into adventure games and i’ve only finished a few). Nice intro though and i see how it delivers the soul of the game 🙂

Btw, i’m pretty sure Monkey Island 1 had 256 colors :-P.
Lexx said,

Well, I somewhat agree on this. It’s shice, that they cut it out of the remake. :>
Norwegian Rock Cot said,

I believe the original floppy disk version was only 16 colors. The later CD-ROM special edition added 256 colors. Wikipedia claims there was a floppy update with 256 colors as well.

Anyway, I would argue that it’s more because they used scanned-art in the second game. It really gave it a good look, that no doubt would scale up well if they still managed to have it sitting around.

Shame about the monkeys though. That and the dancing skeletons were what I remember most from the game.
Chevluh said,

They took the monkey away? I can’t even begin to think of a reason why they’d to that. It’s rather crazy.
Zeus said,

@Norwegian Rock Cot: It’s always funny when a remake is missing the things you remember most.

The TV adaptation of The Colour of Magic was missing the two things I clearly remembered: the dice-based RPG of the gods and the temple of Bel-Shamharoth. I really liked it (Tim Curry is always great), but I can’t help but wish they’d have gone with the Lovecraftian temple instead of the imaginary dragon roost.
Michael said,

The original Monkey Island was 16 colors.
Then there was a 256 color floppy version (which I had) where you could see clearly the same patterns used for the gradients of the 16 color version version.

Then there was the CD-ROM version with music tracks.
old school gaming said,

[…] is playing Master of Magic, Steven’s been playing Masters of Orion, and thanks to the Rampant Coyote I even downloaded the iPod Touch versions of Secret of Monkey Island 1 and 2 for my kids. […]
Lexx said,

With todays update, the monkeys should be back. I didn’t tested it yet tho’.
Rampant Coyote said,

REALLY? Seriously? You aren’t just yankin’ my chain, are you?
Lexx said,

I’ve heard they are back, but only in classic mode. (Still didn’t tested it by myself. Got only bad internet connection here and downloading lots of GB just for testing isn’t cool.)
Rampant Coyote said,

Looks like it’s there for the Steam version, but the XBox version hasn’t been upgraded… 😛